The akademi
passed a resolution condemning Kalburgi's murder and asking the central
and Karnataka governments to take appropariate action. The organisation
also slammed the rise in attacks on India's minorities and Dalits.

The country's top literary body, the Sahitya Akademi, on Friday unanimously condemned the killing of Kannada writer and rationalist MM Kalburgi and requested over 40 writers who had returned their awards in protest to take them back.

In a crucial and much-awaited meeting in New Delhi, the akademi passed a resolution condemning Kalburgi's murder and asking the central and Karnataka governments to take appropariate action. The organisation also slammed the rise in attacks on India's minorities and Dalits.

Kalburgi, also a member of the Sahitya Akademi governing council, was murdered in Karnataka on August 30. Members of Goa-based right-wing outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, have been arrested for the killing.

"We have also unanimously decided that writers who have returned their awards should take them back. The people who have resigned should also join back," Akademi spokesperson K Nachimuthu told reporters after the meeting.

The Akademi resolution is bound to be welcomed by India's leading authors, who had questioned the literary body's silence over the murder of writers and rationalists, and the lynching of a Muslim man over beef rumours in Uttar Pradesh last month.

Earlier on Friday, over 100 writers, wearing black bands, had marched from Mandi House in Central Delhi to the Akademi headquarters protesting against the rise in intolerance in the country. Their march was countered by another protest held by right-wing writers and artists at the same venue.

On Tuesday, a group of writers from different parts of the country met at the Press Club of India and discussed how the Indian society has been "poisoned with intolerance".